Pagan(ish) Senses and Sensibilities

Abstract

An academic biography serves as an opportune moment for thinking about how one's research in Pagan studies fits the larger patterns of one's research and life trajectory. In this (auto)biographer's case, it informs a debate over whether Paganism is or ought to be a religion among other religions, or a set of sensibilities -- including sensorial engagements, individual and collective, with a common material world. I argue that the latter should have its place at the table of Pagan studies, as it draws on the study of Pagan religiosities to produce insights that can inform a much broader set of debates about religion, imagination, environment, identity, and even politics.